Notah Begay field to include Villegas, Kim, Sorenstam, Ochoa

Eric Risberg / APAnthony Kim (right) and Camilo Villegas headline a field of six male players taking part in this year's Notah Begay III (NB3) Foundation Challenge. There will also be six women in the field.

A powerful lineup featuring some of the best young players on the PGA Tour and two recently retired LPGA legends has been signed to participate in the third annual Notah Begay III Foundation Challenge at Turning Stone Resort this summer.

Twenty-something hotshots Anthony Kim, Camilo Villegas, Hunter Mahan and Rickie Fowler, along with Begay and former No. 1 player Vijay Singh, will be joined by the last two world No. 1 players in women’s golf, Lorena Ochoa and Annika Sorenstam, and such notables as Suzann Pettersen, Cristie Kerr, Morgan Pressel and Anna Rawson.

The dozen players will compete in a mixed-team, best-ball format at Atunyote Golf Club on Aug. 31. Ticket prices are still being worked out, but Begay said Wednesday he expects them to fall between the $35 charged for his inaugural, five-player skins game in 2008 and the $330 minimum-priced ticket required to attend last year’s four-player skins game that included Tiger Woods.

Ticket sales also will be limited, he said, with between 5,000 and 10,000 being offered. Last year, sales were limited to 3,000.

Begay said the primary reason for switching to a better-ball format was the absence of Woods.

After last year’s fundraiser, which generated $1.2 million for Begay’s foundation, Begay said he was confident his good friend and former teammate at Stanford would return for a second straight time this year. But that was before Woods’ multiple extramarital affairs became the focus of national attention over Thanksgiving and into the first part of the new year. Several tabloids claimed, without attribution, that two of the affairs occurred at Turning Stone during Begay’s event.

Begay explained that he did not extend an invitation to Woods this year because “I felt that he had more pressing matters that were a priority in his life, and I wanted to give him a year to work on what was important to work on.”

Without Woods, the game’s biggest draw, Begay said he looked to bring in other stars.

For that, he looked to two of the best to ever play on the LPGA Tour: Sorenstam and Ochoa. Sorenstam retired in 2008 with 72 tour wins and, in 2003, became the first woman in 58 years to play in a PGA Tour event. Ochoa, who took over when Sorenstam left, stepped away from the game this spring with 27 victories in her six-year career.

“I thought the more the merrier, and why don’t we bring in (three) former No. 1’s,” said Begay, before adding that Pettersen is now on the cusp of becoming No. 1 on the ladies circuit. “So, we could potentially in our field have three former (or current) No. 1’s on the ladies’ side and one former No. 1 (Singh) on the men’s side.”

The other players offer panache of their own.

Kerr, Pressel and Rawson are known as much for their trademark sense of fashion as their quality of play. On the men’s side, Kim, Villegas and Mahan have quickly established themselves as world-class players, sporting eight total victories, including one each this season.

Fowler, a talented 21-year-old rookie with nearly $2 million in winnings, finished second in last week’s Memorial tournament, in which he sported a final-round, head-to-toe, orange outfit that would sit well with Syracuse fans (or hunters).

Fowler also is part Native American, a fact not lost on Begay, the only full-blooded Native American currently on the PGA Tour, albeit with limited playing status this year. Begay said Fowler, as well as Ochoa, a Mexican, and Villegas, a Colombian, identify strongly with his foundation’s work to develop health-awareness and sports programs that help battle obesity and diabetes among Native American children.

“It’s a dream come true for me to be able to pick up the phone and call players of this caliber, and pull players out of retirement, and get them behind what we are doing,” Begay said.

The two-player teams have not been set yet, and Begay said they will either be hand-picked or done through a blind draw. The men will play from the championship tees, measuring about 7,300 yards, while the women will play the course at between 6,500 and 6,700 yards.

Tickets will go on sale July 1 through Turning Stone’s box office at 315-361-SHOW (7469).